Cruisin' Caribbean Style (Part Three)

The last entry for the Caribbean cruise takes us to Roatan, Honduras, part of the Mohagany Bay Islands, and to Costa Maya, Mexico, home to one of the newly discovered Mayan civilizations, Chacchoben, which means Red Corn.

For the trip to Roatan, we had rented scooters and planned to explore on our own across the island, however a heavy rainstorm dampened these plans, and we returned our scooters shortly after heading out. We took a water taxi to a popular tourist area called West Bay, and had lunch there and walked along the beach. From there, we went back to West End, did a little shopping, then back to the ship and some more shopping and walking along the beach before embarking and heading to the Yucatan Peninsula.

In Costa Maya, we had arranged a tour that would take us about 80 kilometers from the port to the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins. Here, only about 10% has been excavated, and the company plans to leave parts uncovered so visitors can see what it looked like after being dormant for many years. From there, we went to a Mayan village where two ladies prepare an amazing traditional meal for us, and we even got to make our own corn tortillas, so now I have had lessons in making both flour and corn tortillas from my friends in Mexico.

Enjoy the pictures. Off to get ready for class, then hang out with the group from Mt. Prospect.

Docking in Mahogany Bay, Roatan

Beach in West Bay

This bird landed by me at lunch, I made some noise, and it yelled back.

My future beach house

Our ship in dock

Toes in the water, toes in the sand

Mayan Pyramid in chachhoben

This is how it looked when they first found it. They think there is another here

A room off the pyramid

Houses were built on top of these steps, they left the dirt on top to show what it looked like before

Mayan Eggplant

One of our cooks, who taught us tortilla making

There is mine

Chiles

Beans, those are Cocoa beans right in front

mmmm plantains

My plate of goodness

Cruisin' Caribbean Style (Part Two)

The next stop on our Caribbean tour takes us to the island of Grand Cayman. We had arranged a tour from Captain Marvin that would include the highlights of the island, including time to snorkel with the stingrays. Unfortunately, the water was choppy, and the company recommended we did not do the snorkel part, and refunded our money. This was good because we wanted time to shop, but not good because I really wanted to snorkel with the stingrays.

We boarded this small bus, about 19 passengers probably and our driver took us around the island. He was knowledgeable and funny and made the trip more interesting. I'll let the photos and captions tell the story. Have a blessed week.

Beginning of 7 mile beach which is, you guessed it, 7 miles long. All of the beach is public so the hotels cannot rope of private sections.

Looking down 7 mile beach to my beach house :)

Nice clear water

Small town on Grand Cayman with a bar, post office, and souvenir shop.

This is why they call it hell. It appears to be dried coral. There must have been an inlet or pond here in the past.

More of Hell

There is this huge turtle farm on the island that mates and raises turtles, releasing most back into the wild throughout the world. The oldest one there was 135 years old and weighed 595 pounds.

Small turtles, 2-3 years old

We could hold them. This guy was 10 I think

Not sure why there was an alligator or crocodile at a turtle farm.

These were just 11 weeks old.

There were iguanas all over the island, just relaxing in the sun.

Do you see it?

How many can you find in this picture?

It was a popular day in Grand Cayman with a total of 5 ships in port.

Cayman Pirate ship

Cruisin' Caribbean Style (Part One)

When we went on our European cruise in October 2010, my mom was the lucky winner of the win a cruise bingo game. They chose to take a Caribbean cruise, upgrade to a Verandah room, and invited me along for the third person reduced rate. Not going to turn that down. We ended up changing our original plan because a similar itinerary was available on the Nieuw Amsterdam, which was the same ship we sailed on in the Mediterranean. Not that I don't think the other ships in the Holland America fleet would not be as great, we knew what we were getting on the Nieuw Amsterdam.

We boarded in Fort Lauderdale Florida, and sailed to Holland America's private island in the Bahamas, called Half Moon Cay. I took a shore excursion that let me ride a jet ski for about an hour throughout the Cay and into the Caribbean for a brief moment, although it was hard to drive and try to take pictures, so there were not many. The island also had a nice beach to relax on, and lunch was a complimentary island buffet. From Half Moon Cay, we set sail for Grand Cayman after a day at sea. More on the other ports of call in the next blog. One thing I noticed that was different on this trip was that we spent much more time on the boat. On the European cruise we often had 10-12 hours in port, whereas we only had about 6 on this trip. Likely contributed to the longer distances we had to travel between ports, and the ship maxed out at about 25 mph. Enjoy the first set of photos and check back soon for part two.

The Allure of the Seas, world's largest cruise ship, 6000 passengers

Apartments right on the waterway out of the cruise port, this one was waving the Holland America flag

End of the beach in Fort Lauderdale

Beach from Fort Lauderdale to Miami way in the background

The show on the first night introduced all the shipboard musical entertainment,

dancers

All the Holland America entertainers

The first night we ate at the specialty Asian restaurant called Tamarind, these are my dumplings

My duck entree

Sauteed Asian vegetables in oyster sauce

Mushrooms

Carmelized banana dessert. YUM!!

Dessert Extravaganza

The beach on Half Moon Cay

M.A.S.H. like sign telling us how far away certain places are

Our ship chillin'

View from the beach

This bird landed on the tray right by our table and started eating the leftovers

Venturing into the water, it was pretty cold